Political Mockitecture

More local political news has recently invaded the strange world of mockitecture (deeply sorry to all of our non-Ohio readers - but this will make you glad you don't live here, as if you actually need a reason to not want to live in the American Midwest). Desperately attempting to come up with a word for political mockitecture, but only getting the super-lame "mockilitics." Hopefully our intrepid readers can help with this.

So what's the big news!? Cincinnati's City Council members are getting in trouble for tweeting during city council meetings! Hah, that's right. It's like that time in fourth grade when you were passing secret notes around in the back of english class! A creative journalist came up with this catchy opening line to the article: "A fleet of tweets has Cincinnati City Council member Leslie Ghiz catching heat." What's even better is the end of the article: City Council won't address a call to ban tweeting during their meetings until after their summer vacation. What a joke of a city.

Reminds me of @Mockitecture's recent use of the phrase "sneak peek tweet." Oh...I totally forgot I was blogging, not tweeting. Sounds like social media is getting the best of us all. Twitter has officially trumped Tamagotchi as that hot new trend that everyone publicly hates (but secretly LOVES).

Slutty Technology + A New Brutalism = ...

...A rant by N O R T O N

I was recently eStalking Sam Jacob via twitter (my apologies to Mr. Jacob for eStalking, and to everyone for mentioning Twitter) and came across an interesting article: The young generation with a new vision to build Britain, by Geraldine Bedell of The Observer.  You can read about it here.

Something that immediately caught my eye: a discussion of our generation's rejection of what I would call "technological puke" or what others call "bubble architecture"...and what Peter Lynch in the article identifies as the "idiot avant garde."

As a member of the generation Lynch is talking about, I find the subject is critically relevant, yet lacking significant discourse.  In school, for example, faculty were seemingly caught off guard by "thin" design where image and flashy computer graphics trumped "thick" design of drawing, thought, and decision-making.  We were not slapped in the face for presenting a building associated with the "idiot avant garde" -  the infamous building which was seemingly only designed around, or built for, that one night rendering produced in 3D Studio Max, V-Ray, et. al.

From Bedell's article: 

Patrick Lynch is actively hostile to what he sees as the inevitable decline of modernism into what he calls the "idiot avant garde, which means that all your work ultimately looks the same, whatever the climate". He claims that younger architects are disenchanted with "the idea that technological progress equals artistic progress equals moral progress equals virtue, which leads to the kind of thinking that it's OK to go and build for a completely unpalatable regime and fuck up the planet for money, because you're working in your signature style and it's an expression of individual creativity" (^interjection: isn't that what happened in China for last summer's olympic games???)

A couple of reasons for my personal hatred of slutty technology:  

1. The tradition of "making" is succumbing to the tradition of "picking" with a mouse (e.g. before: "that architect has a hot pencil." today: "that architect has a hot mouse.")
2. The building I was trained as an architect in (Mr. Eisenman's 1996 addition to D.A.A.P.) seemingly exists for the architect's pursuit of a singular, narrow-minded vision and (brutal)ly ignores the needs and uses of students and faculty.  Perhaps this is a new interpretation of brutalism - one of narrow and limited social objectives.  It seems fitting Eisenman's building is in the shadows of one of the largest continuously poured concrete structures in the world - a the brutalist tower/skyscraper named Crosley Tower. Images below:

(Link to evan.chakroff's photostream)

Links

Since there hasn'e been much news in the wacky world of Mockitecture lately, I thought I'd defer to other sources that may satisfy your Mockitecture fix. (If there is such a thing.)

Please follow this guy on twitter.

Check out this and this.

And last but definitely not least, is the long overdue hype of this.

Finding The Greatest Decorated Shed Ever: An Application of Biogeographic Theories and Satellite Imagery

I tweeted this up a few days ago, and I apologize for the delay. It is an incredibly convoluted post, which took more time than usual to put together. In the search for the greatest decorated shed ever, I could not leave out any stops. This would require the big guns. Using sophisticated technology and advanced techniques, I have located a possibility for the greatest decorated shed in the history of mankind. So, here we go. Buckle up.

Based on the process in which geographers hypothesized bin Laden's whereabouts, I have put together a step by step graphic analysis of my own search for the greatest decorated shed. From the initial report:

Distance-decay theory states that as one goes further away from a precise location, there is an exponential decline in the turnover of species and a lower probability of finding the same composition of species. The theory of island biogeography states that large and close islands will have higher immigration rates and support more species with lower extinction rates than small isolated islands.

These theories can be applied over varying spatial scales to posit [the greatest decorated shed's] current location based on [its] last reputed geographic location. Distance-decay theory would predict that [it] is closest to the point where he was last reported and, by extension, within a region that has a similar physical environment and cultural composition (that is, similar religious and political beliefs).

Global Scale

The last known location of the "great decorated shed" phenomenon is Robert Venturi's Fire Station No. 4 in Columbus, Indiana. Ugly and Ordinary, this shed sets the bar high for contemporary sheds. In bin Ladens case, if he strays too far from the Tora Bora region and the tribal areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, his risk of being turned in becomes greater due to differing cultural and political settings. The shed phenomenon cannot stray too far, because the settings may lack the banality required to support such a pure form of Ugly and Ordinary. {henceforth (U&O)}

Last Known Location of Shed

Using the distance-decay theory, we can assertain that the phenomenon of Venturi's shed would have higher probabilty of residing with in certain distances of its last known location.


Regional Scale

There are two cities nearby which meet our characteristics. Indianapolis is a large metropolitan area approximately 40 miles north. Bloomington is a medium sized college town, approximately 30 miles west. Both are well connected to Columbus and have many similar social structures. Both are with in the distance we would expect the shed to presently reside. Species have better survival rates on large islands, much like someone hunted by the CIA would have better chances of being anonymous in a city. The shed would have the same inclination to go to a city where it can have other shed to compete against.


N_O_R_T_O_N calls it a duck turned decorated shed. It is a church with no steeple, but a neon "Jesus" sign instead. I was astounded when I saw this marvelous piece of mockitecture. It is the most glorious unwittingly high-folk architecture ever created. I feel truly priveleged to introduce the House of Victory to the world. These pictures were taken after scaling a fence and standing by the guard rail of I-70 west in Indianapolis. The best shots are from the highway. While struggling to get the right angle and light, a police officer approached me. I said I was just taking pictures of the building, and he let me go. He must be down with the shed.

P.S. The Runner-Up is "speedy text/racing sponsorship/looming warehouse/retractable roof" Lucas Oil Stadium...
After careful analysis, Bloomington is ruled out because it lacks banality. With a college and the its beautiful campus, the town of about 60,000 is not U&O enough for this shed. Using the process of elimination, we must move on to Indianapolis.

Local Scale

Using Life History Characteristics (aka Learning From Las Vegas) and another process of elimination: the definition of a decorated shed and physical analysis of potential buildings, three buildings have been selected. They meet the criteria set forth by Venturi, plus they have an added WOW factor. Upon completion of the study... The winner is House of Victory!!! In a landslide!

The Wild World of Twitter

I am enjoying wasting everyone's time with the newly discovered Twitter application.  Any other important questions I should be tweeting to my eFriends?